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[ethomaz]

If you were hoping for 60 FPS, I guess? (Or you're on XO? If that's the case, that sucks)

It's holding 29-30 FPS for the vast majority of that video. There are slowdowns in some cutscenes and drops to 27 or so from Fireworks, but "Framerate is really bad"?

I'm just not seeing it. It's not flawless 30+, but it's not low enough that I think 6 mo. of optimization can't fix it.

It is only 29-30 if you look at the blue number because it drops a lot over the time... it is really bad.

I don't get it. It's mostly stable throughout, it does dip, but it's mostly stable, and even the lowest dip isn't that low(low twenties). It needs work, sure, but it's not as bad as people are making it out to be.

The video shows the frame pacing is really bad.

It is worst than BB playing for example and BB has bad framerate too.

 

[Gator86]

Pretty great lighting engine they got.
Needs motion blur, like, badly and a stable framerate.
Janky jumping physics/animation.
Graphics are hit and miss. Looked nice or even very good at times, while parts of the town with those flat, boxy buildings could look very dated.

Heck, the whole thing felt dated. Felt like a several years old game at times, with the gems lying around showing the way and the pads you step on. Though these are just for the demo, I'd assume. Combat shows some depth, but I thought the whole thing felt unresponsive and clumsy. Small enemies being a chore to clear and the iron giant lacking adequate audio and visual feedback when fought.
I understand it's hard to demo an open world ARPG, but I thought this was pretty bad, sadly, a lot worse than I was expecting.
Finishing the demo and being asked if I wanted to preorder FFXV just as I was thinking they did a pretty awful job at selling people on the game was like the cherry on top.

I really wanted to like a new FF too.
Well, I guess FFVII remake will have to do.

Basically my response to it. It's about what you'd expect for a game caught in development hell for a decade. The idea of 50 hours of JRPG writing with that combat makes me kind of cringe. It's a low excitement rental for me right now which is a thing I never thought I would say about a FF game.

 

[Master7]

They were better off putting Episode Duscae up for download. This demo was awful compared to that.

Had the same thought after I was done. Duscae wasn't all that great either but atleast you had actual abilities, a summon, and team attacks to play with in that version.

Hm.. just played the demo and I am kinda indifferent about it. Something about the combat feels off. Often I would press the dodge button right before an attack but still get hit (although it wasn't an undodgable attack). I guess you are stuck in attack animation until it's done? I was expecting Noctis to just cancel the attack animation once I press the defend/dodge button, but since it didn't seem to work, it was really difficult to find an opening to actually attack because you need enough time to dodge after that. Am I doing something wrong?

The dodge/defend button doesn't work well against the Iron Giant. You're better off using Triangle to warp away.

 

[UpDownLeftRight]

Hm.. just played the demo and I am kinda indifferent about it. Something about the combat feels off. Often I would press the dodge button right before an attack but still get hit (although it wasn't an undodgable attack). I guess you are stuck in attack animation until it's done? I was expecting Noctis to just cancel the attack animation once I press the defend/dodge button, but since it didn't seem to work, it was really difficult to find an opening to actually attack because you need enough time to dodge after that. Am I doing something wrong?

Oddly, I found the hold to dodge gets me out of those moments a lot more often whereas the manual dodge gets me hit since it has no i-frames, but yes the dodge seems delayed. I think if they could at least allow manual to cancel out and give it some i-frames it would solve a reasonable amount of the problem since you'd have to rely on a manual dodge to cancel and get distance which would buy you the time to resort to the auto dodge if the enemy follows up.

Ideally both would just work immediately, but I feel like manual dodge is largely useless in both scenarios and would like to see them make the two have rather distinct uses. As it is right now manual dodge is a last resort and a bad one at that whereas I feel like it should be the one with the greater reward since it will require correct timing. I think it would weave together well this way too since chaining manuals isn't always possible due to the timing, but that just my thoughts on the dodging. I don't think the delay on an auto dodge is necessarily bad since it could be a punishment for an otherwise very easy system, but manual dodge needs to be much more effective for that to work out.

If that was contextual animation it sounds awesome!

Pretty sure I saved that moment to look back through later on too. I had a few interesting things happen. Fingers crossed it made it into the clip and if it did I'll see if I can get a clip up on YT or a GIF for you guys to decide.

 

[Narroo]

Beat the demo.

Following a unicorn dog trying to find your safe space with some bad voice acting thrown in isn't exactly working toward their stated goal of drawing in newcomers to help boost sales IMO. Not when the average gamer is in his 30's and the best selling single player games seem to trend more mature.

Fennec Fox.

It's really just a Fennec Fox with a horn attached to it.

 

[Shadax the wizard]

Actually mentioning this, when fighting the iron giant one of the barrels rolled by as I got knocked down, I was moving in the direction of it when getting back up and Noctis actually put his hand on the barrel as he got up. I was pretty impressed by that little detail but at the time I couldn't tell if it was intentional or a coincidence.

If that was contextual animation it sounds awesome!

 

[ViciousDS]

I'm actually having fun with the demo.....btw all those wood blocks in the house when your shrunk..... All them fuckers are coming down!!!!

 

[Xenoblade]

The game feels like ass to play. Low framerate leads to a feeling of lagged controller inputs. It's pretty though.

 

[TheChillyAcademic]

Did the hair/fur in this game always look this bad?

Cause it looks bad...like, very bad.

 

[Whompa02]

I loved the combat music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0ZYSZpLT3M

 

[BumRush]

The game feels like ass to play. Low framerate leads to a feeling of lagged controller inputs. It's pretty though.

I'm not sure it's the frame rate alone doing that. They seem like distinct problems to me. Even when there was nothing going on on the screen, there was still noticeable lag.

 

[Nothing1016]

My frame rate seemed fine. Nothing that was a detriment to the gameplay. Demo was very bare bones though especially the combat.

Lol after reading some comments, I feel like I played a completely different demo.

 

[BumblebeeCody]

So aweeeesome!

 

[Jonm1010]

Fennec Fox.

It's really just a Fennec Fox with a horn attached to it.

Thats why it looked so familiar, still, point still stands haha.

 

[thefro]

I think the demo was a pretty bad thing to release to anyone on the fence or who didn't know about the game already. Seems like a tech demo more than anything.

Pretty janky with some big framerate drops on XB1. The thing crawls in the blocks section if you knock a few blocks over at maybe 10-15 FPS. Camera isn't the best on how it swings around randomly.

The graphics are pretty inconsistent but even at their best they aren't really wow-worthy on the platform. Probably the nicest-looking thing is the rain or the spell effects, but you can obviously tell this started out as a PS3 game. Several invisible walls in the demo that you can't go through.

The control seemed pretty janky, especially when you transform into something else like a car or monster.

Music is pretty awesome, as you'd expect.

Battle system seems floaty, but like it could be fun for an action RPG. Never played Kingdom Hearts.

I did like the little plates in the demo you could hit to trigger certain things.

Didn't feel like a Final Fantasy game to me, overall.

 

[DeathPeak]

I enjoyed it and didn't really have any drops (PS4).

 

[Perfect Cha0s]

The problem is that render time per frame is really inconsistent, the stuttering makes the fps seem worse than it really is.
And it's hard to excuse the Iron Giant fight drops which happen every single time and don't bode well for impressive tussles with bosses.

It is only 29-30 if you look at the blue number because it drops a lot over the time... it is really bad.

The video shows the frame pacing is really bad.

It is worst than BB playing for example and BB has bad framerate too.

take a look at the framepacing.

Oh, okay. I agree if we're talking about frame-pacing. Hopefully they can iron it out.

 

[BumRush]

My frame rate seemed fine. Nothing that was a detriment to the gameplay. Demo was very bare bones though especially the combat.

Lol after reading some comments, I feel like I played a completely different demo.

I agree. I liked it. Looked really pretty on my TV and the performance wasn't "ass" for a game that has 6 months until release. If they could improve the framerate, input lag and pull the camera back a little bit, it'd play way better. I'm not talking MAJOR overhauls either.

 

[Dre_G_Writer]

I HHHHHHHHAAAATTTTEEEEEEEEE The combat controls in this game.

My right thumb is doing WAY too much in my opinion.

Use my right thumb, to move the camera, use it to block, use it to warp and use it to attack..........

I was getting SUPER frustrated with the controls. Not to mention, you gotta HOLD the buttons, making switching between blocking, attack and warping slower than usual and I was getting hit more than I liked.

I was not happy at all with these combat controls.

why can't I change the controls to attack be Right trigger and defend using left trigger and warp using one of the shoulder buttons??? My index finger was doing absolutely NOTHING the entire battle. Why not make use of those button for combat??? Why put all the characters action besides movement on one finger!?

I was excited about the game but if the controls are gonna be like that, ima have to pass on this game.

 

[lukeskymac]

From the Framerate Comparison thread:

So I just played this... and I'm not feeling it at all. I can't quite grasp what's up with the defense system: holding square is a snorefest, tapping it reminds me of Souls games but since there seems to be no iFrames it doesn't do much good, and I can't seem to figure out how to tell if an attack is going to be defendable with square or not (since they all have similarly looking huge windups). So so far using Warp defensively seems like a better idea than using the Defend command, which isn't exactly encouraging...

Oh, and everything leading up to that mini boss fight was just plain boring and meaningless. I'm wondering how they managed to make a unicorn fennec sound annoying instead of adorable.

I HHHHHHHHAAAATTTTEEEEEEEEE The combat controls in this game.

My right thumb is doing WAY too much in my opinion.

Use my right thumb, to move the camera, use it to block, use it to warp and use it to attack..........

I was getting SUPER frustrated with the controls. Not to mention, you gotta HOLD the buttons, making switching between blocking, attack and warping slower than usual and I was getting hit more than I liked.

I was not happy at all with these combat controls.

why can't I change the controls to attack be Right trigger and defend using left trigger and warp using one of the shoulder buttons???

I was excited about the game but if the controls are gonna be like that, ima have to pass on this game.

Yeah that doesn't make sense at all. It's like no one at Square Enix knows why shoulder buttons exist.

 

[ODDI]

Messing with the toy blocks was a baaaaad idea the camera gets all kind of crazy and the physics are disappointing.

 

[Tengrave]

I like this demo but I feel that's only because I have Duscade as well. As if a bonus round for that.

 

[wild wild rice]

Well that was short and bizarre. I appreciate the bizarreness, but I will be amazed if all the different shit we've been seeing gets pulled into a coherent game.

 

[Sub_Level]

This is easily the most impressive tech demo of 2010.

 

[Mr. Nice_Guy]

Yeah that doesn't make sense at all. It's like no one at Square Enix knows why shoulder buttons exist.

Really though.

 

[BossDarkseid]

I HHHHHHHHAAAATTTTEEEEEEEEE The combat controls in this game.

My right thumb is doing WAY too much in my opinion.

Use my right thumb, to move the camera, use it to block, use it to warp and use it to attack..........

I was getting SUPER frustrated with the controls. Not to mention, you gotta HOLD the buttons, making switching between blocking, attack and warping slower than usual and I was getting hit more than I liked.

I was not happy at all with these combat controls.

why can't I change the controls to attack be Right trigger and defend using left trigger and warp using one of the shoulder buttons??? My index finger was doing absolutely NOTHING the entire battle. Why not make use of those button for combat??? Why put all the characters action besides movement on one finger!?

I was excited about the game but if the controls are gonna be like that, ima have to pass on this game.

You can remap in ps4's OS

 

[YankeeDonB]

I'm actually having fun with the demo.....btw all those wood blocks in the house when your shrunk..... All them fuckers are coming down!!!!

I like to knock me down with fireworks.

 

[wild wild rice]

This is easily the most impressive tech demo of 2010.

I actually lol'ed in real life.

 

[MODEYV3]

So the graphics are great, but man the gameplay feels sooo unresponsive. Coming from playing Bloodborne for the past week they seem so slow, I can beat a boss without getting a single hit on me by dodging on Bloodborne. This demo I got hit almost every time I went to dodge against the giant.

I guess I'll wait for the full release to fully judge this, but i've been waiting for this game since it got announced, kinda expected it to be more responsive.

 

[TheChillyAcademic]

Do we have any idea what this unlocks in the actual game?

 

[YankeeDonB]

Also, I just can't get tired of warp attacking the giant from the top of the sky scraper.

Has anyone messed around much with armiger in this demo? I got used to it in Duscae but clearly different here. Like, can we activate only once a battle?

 

[Zhao_Yun]

Had the same thought after I was done. Duscae wasn't all that great either but atleast you had actual abilities, a summon, and team attacks to play with in that version.

The dodge/defend button doesn't work well against the Iron Giant. You're better off using Triangle to warp away.

Oh right, forgot that I can just use short teleports to dodge as well. Will try that out next time.

Oddly, I found the hold to dodge gets me out of those moments a lot more often whereas the manual dodge gets me hit since it has no i-frames, but yes the dodge seems delayed. I think if they could at least allow manual to cancel out and give it some i-frames it would solve a reasonable amount of the problem since you'd have to rely on a manual dodge to cancel and get distance which would buy you the time to resort to the auto dodge if the enemy follows up.

Ideally both would just work immediately, but I feel like manual dodge is largely useless in both scenarios and would like to see them make the two have rather distinct uses. As it is right now manual dodge is a last resort and a bad one at that whereas I feel like it should be the one with the greater reward since it will require correct timing. I think it would weave together well this way too since chaining manuals isn't always possible due to the timing, but that just my thoughts on the dodging. I don't think the delay on an auto dodge is necessarily bad since it could be a punishment for an otherwise very easy system, but manual dodge needs to be much more effective for that to work out.

Yeah, I agree with you in regards to the manual dodge. As it is, you don't cover enough distance with manual dodge to be able to dodge attacks with a huge range effectively and no i-frames just makes it even worse. On the other hand, the delay with auto dodging makes combat feel unresponsive as hell. I felt like I had to press dodge before the attack animation from the giant started in order to activate it in time, which was not fun at all.

On a technical level I was mostly fine with the demo but since combat is the most important aspect for me, I am really not convinced right now. Star Ocean 5 combat looks much moe fun than this at the moment.

 

[Sub_Level]

Do we have any idea what this unlocks in the actual game?

Carbuncle summon.

 

[IcyBlueStrawberry]

So the graphics are great, but man the gameplay feels sooo unresponsive. Coming from playing Bloodborne for the past week they seem so slow, I can beat a boss without getting a single hit on me by dodging on Bloodborne. This demo I got hit almost every time I went to dodge against the giant.

I guess I'll wait for the full release to fully judge this, but i've been waiting for this game since it got announced, kinda expected it to be more responsive.

Yeah, there's a lot of input lag.

I'm assuming it won't be there at release, but who knows.

 

[lukeskymac]

You can remap in ps4's OS

And have to change it back every time I have to play another game? Please.

 

[Zophar]

I actually thought the demo performed better than I was expecting, honestly. Still, as a vertical slice it left a little to be desired - I really need to see more of the finished combat for myself, not simply "Press O to bash junk mobs" for the most of it, which is clearly not representative of what's been promised in virtually all of the promotional material.

 

[BossDarkseid]

And have to change it back every time I have to play another game? Please.

-shrug- I haven't used the function but coulda sworn you could set it for a game or app.

 

[topplehat]

Thus continues the trend of microtext in modern games.

 

[generic_username]

Quick question about the combat? Are there iframes when dodging like Souls? When do you hold auto dodge and when do you just dodge? Is it clear which attacks can be auto dodged or do you have to hold it and just hope not to get hit?

Is this a QTE? How did you initiate it?

 

[Sithlord77]

The combat system is a mess. Even worse than Duscae imo. Sometimes I can jump sometimes I can't when in battle. other times I can warp but sometimes I can't (I'm on about the iron giant fight specifically). I kept pressing the wrong buttons as it was confusing me on what I needed to press. It said circle to attack so I pressed that and nothing was happening a lot of the time? Wtf?

didn't really understand what was going on in the battles as nothing is explained but they seemed sluggish and unresponsive. Not slick in any way. I was holding circle to attack in the instances it did work but that's about it? It seems dumbed down. Combat seemed wonky, clunky and shallow. When I pressed any other button I often ended up doing no action and just getting damaged for trying. So I just held circle through all the fights. How is this fun?

I really hope this improves because it is not going to get good reviews with the way it is right now. I can't believe they greelnlit this demo. It's gonna turn so many people off. This is coming from someone who loves FF. Even XIII.

Also why the fuck is circle the attack button? Why not square? It's so stupid.

 

[Blackleg-sanji1]

Quick question about the combat? Are there iframes when dodging like Souls? When do you hold auto dodge and when do you just dodge? Is it clear which attacks can be auto dodged or do you have to hold it and just hope not to get hit?



Is this a QTE? How did you initiate it?

That gif is a parry, when the option comes up to block thats when it activates

 

[ViciousDS]

Finished demo with 430 gems.....got shuriken and hero's shield.....I.....want more!

*cries*

Just when combat gets good the demos over......lame. It makes me want to jump back into duscae despite it having worse controls.

I actually no problem switching on the fly.....aerial noctis is fucking badass and it looks so cool! The 5 meter warp is a really nice feature and I can imagine then using then to get hidden items in the final game.

Yes I'm stoked.

I thought it looked fine.....I notice the frame rate does sit under 30 a bit but it definitely didn't bother me. Shit I played unity.....nothing is worse than that.

 

[Kaizer]

Please tell me I wasn't the only one who warped all the way up the building and just stayed there looking at the view? Pretty awesome to finally recreate the moment seen from previous trailers!

 

[Blackleg-sanji1]

Please tell me I wasn't the only one who warped all the way up the building and just stayed there looking at the view? Pretty awesome to finally recreate the moment seen from previous trailers!

I did it...then fell down to my down by accident

 

[YankeeDonB]

Please tell me I wasn't the only one who warped all the way up the building and just stayed there looking at the view? Pretty awesome to finally recreate the moment seen from previous trailers!

Definitely not. Did it different time of day/weather conditions too.

 

[UmbraeCruxis]

Please tell me I wasn't the only one who warped all the way up the building and just stayed there looking at the view? Pretty awesome to finally recreate the moment seen from previous trailers!

I did the same! It looked really nice just looking at the distance and then at the little square that you were in.

Spoiler

Promptly before warping your sword in to the iron giant's face.

 

[ViciousDS]

I did it...then fell down to my down by accident

You can do that......but tap triangle before landing to save yourself lol

 

[KZXcellent]

Hoping the air-combo stuff gets better when the game comes out. I attribute my issues with it to the fact there are so little options in the demo. As Adult Noctis I basically had a light and heavy sword and not much to transition to in the air. The hits also lacked the weight and impact like say Kingdom Hearts for example. Hoping that gets rectified in the final release or it's just an issue of giving demo players the bare minimum weapon-wise.

 

[notaskwid]

I didn't play the game in English, but bad voice work? There are like 20 words spoken in all of it.

Btw, what happened to skills?

 

[Appollowexx]

I've uploaded a commentary free play through for anyone that doesn't have access to the demo or just fancies checking it out over playing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=469OTaFFtNw

Thoughts:

Pros:

+Music was god-tier.
+Graphics were fantastic.
+Carbuncle was cute.
+Had a feeling of wonder and enchantment, similar to the KH games.
+Character of young Noctis seemed well presented.
+Story is intriguing from the snippets shown.

Cons:

- Demo framerate was pretty unstable.
- It was weird... I mean you

Spoiler

can transform into a truck

- The pace was off and the demo short.
- Strange area of the game to showcase in a playable demo.
- Combat felt a bit patchy, feels sluggish and a little unresponsive at times.


I'm looking forward to it's release but not sure if i'm quite as hyped as before. There are many little things that bug me about the game currently, it just doesn't seem overall that polished. Then again it's 6 months out still.